


Shattered Bones

by TheFrustratedNerd



Series: Ace Battosai (Sole Survivor) [3]
Category: Fallout (Video Games), Fallout 4
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Chem Use (Fallout), Cuddling & Snuggling, M/M, Post-Blind Betrayal, Reckless Paladin Danse, Serious Injuries, Sleepy Cuddles, Whump, flail chest, ignoring medical issues
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-08
Updated: 2021-02-08
Packaged: 2021-03-13 11:53:38
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,745
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29278017
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheFrustratedNerd/pseuds/TheFrustratedNerd
Summary: Danse was caught off guard during a fight, and his ribs paid the price. Ace tries to get his husband to take his health seriously, but the man is far too restless. He ends up reinjuring himself, and gets an earful from both his husband and Curie.
Relationships: Curie & Male Sole Survivor, Curie & Paladin Danse (Fallout), Curie & Sole Survivor, Paladin Danse/Male Sole Survivor, Paladin Danse/Sole Survivor (Fallout)
Series: Ace Battosai (Sole Survivor) [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1526447
Kudos: 4





	Shattered Bones

**Author's Note:**

> Mind the tags! This one is a little gruesome, and it may be a tad bit much for some.

Ace and Danse were travelling the Commonwealth, responding to a distress call for the Minutemen. It wasn’t rare, they did this quite often, more so since Danse had been kicked out of the Brotherhood and joined the Minutemen instead, not really knowing how to be anything other than a soldier. However, what was rare was that this time Danse wasn’t in his Power Armor. There was something wrong with the hydraulics in one of the legs, it was difficult to move in, and he didn’t have the time to fix it before they needed to head out. Starlight Drive In was being threatened by raiders, as had happened many times before, and they needed help setting up some defenses before the raiders came back full force. 

Frankly, Danse didn’t know why the raiders kept trying, or why they remained raiders at all. Ace was very open about his belief that anyone can change, and that he was willing to take anyone under his wing who needed help, regardless of their past. There were quite a few former raiders who were now settlers in Diamond City, Goodneighbor, even Sanctuary. Ace was a firm believer that one’s past doesn’t define them nor who they can be in the future. 

As Danse was lost in thought thinking about this, they arrived to find raiders already nearly at the settlement, there was no time to assemble a turret or otherwise fortify the area, they just had to hope that their own firepower would be enough. The battle that ensued was chaotic. The raiders were outnumbered, but they still fought well. One with a tire iron rushed Danse, managing to catch him off-guard and slamming her weapon into his spine, pain shooting through his nervous system like electricity. He turned on his heels, striking her with the stock of his rifle. She managed to get another swing in to Danse's ribcage before he could get her down. There was a sickening crack and squelch as the weapon connected, knocking the wind out of Danse, though he managed to stay standing even as the raider fell dead beside him. He could hardly breathe, and panic started to set in. The rest of the fight was a blur, his head was spinning and he felt sick to his stomach, his mind numb, and he barely even realized he was falling until he had already hit the ground.

Ace saw him go down, alarm running through his veins like liquid ice when he saw the way Danse’s chest moved as he drew in rattling gasps. A section was moving paradoxically, pushing out when he exhaled and pressing in when he inhaled, a condition that Ace recognized from his time as an army medic, flail chest. He ran over to Danse, stimpak already in hand, trying not to lose his composure. Flail chest occurs when two or more ribs break entirely off of the ribcage; if the stimpak didn’t work, Danse could easily die from this. The ribs affected were away from his heart, at least, but they could still puncture his lungs if he moved the wrong way or breathed too deeply. 

“Danse, are you still awake?” Ace tried to keep a calm tone, but his nerves crept into his voice, his hands shaking as he gingerly pushed Danse’s shirt up to see if there were any other wounds he needed to be mindful of. He was a bit relieved to see there weren’t, and he stuck the stimpak in, injecting it and wincing when Danse did. 

“Affirmative, could’ve used a warning there,” Danse wheezed, and Ace cringed when he coughed. At least he wasn’t coughing up blood. His skin had gone pale and was cold under Ace's touch, the man was sweating and his eyes weren't quite right. Ace quickly recognized that his husband was going into shock.

“Sorry. Try not to move too much, your ribs are looking pretty bad.” Ace held Danse's face in his free hand, turning it to the side so he wouldn't choke under the guise of trying to make eye contact. It was hot enough outside that Ace wasn't too worried about the body temperature drop, but he could feel how fast and faint Danse's pulse was.

“One of them hit me with a tire iron, it’s nothing I can’t handle," Danse tried to reassure him, but the rattling in his lungs was far from comforting. It took much more effort than he'd like to admit just to keep his eyes open, just to prevent himself from passing out.

“I saw, and it’s worse than you probably think. The stimpak will help but I don’t know how fragile your ribcage will be after it kicks in, so it would probably be best if you stayed still for a minute,” Ace was made nervous when Danse didn’t respond, but he was still breathing and blinking. To be honest, he just didn’t have the energy to speak, as the adrenaline faded and the pain fully set in he started feeling like a behemoth had been tossing him around, and he wasn’t entirely able to stifle a soft groan of pain. At that, Ace injected another stimpak, again not thinking to give a warning, and while it helped the pain slightly, it was far from fixed. “Do you need a Med-X?”

Danse refused, which wasn’t surprising. He never liked to rely on any sort of chem for any reason. Danse tried to ignore the ache in the several minutes it took the two stimpaks to do their work, helped by the fact that Ace kept him distracted, and most importantly, calm. Once his ribs were back to moving correctly and he’d stopped wheezing, Ace focused on treating his shock, going through the motions he remembered from his army days. When it seemed like Danse had recovered and the man was actually able to hold his own head up, Ace helped him to stand, and they made their way back to Sanctuary so Curie could take a closer look at the damage. It was difficult, Danse could walk but it still hurt to breathe too deeply, so it took them almost twice the time to get home as it took them getting there. This was frustrating, to say the least. Ace was patient and attentive as always, but Danse hated feeling like a liability, and their frequent rests so he could catch his breath were certainly not helping. 

By the time they were home, Danse was beyond exhausted. Curie said that the stimpaks prevented the damage from being life-threatening, but that he still needed rest and to keep warm. She also informed him that for the next six weeks, he wouldn’t be able to do anything that would put strain on his ribs. Curie advised him to bite the bullet and take a Med-X, if he wasn’t able to breathe properly due to the pain he could develop pneumonia, which would only make the healing process worse. Ace had no problem with letting him stay home and safe, but Danse certainly did. He could hardly stand not working for a day, how would he be able to pull it off for six weeks? 

It turns out, he wasn’t really able to. Against Curie’s advice, after only a couple days he went back to working around Sanctuary, and he refused to take any Med-X. He did turret maintenance, he took up empty spots in the guard roster, he was as restless as always. Of course, it didn’t take long for something to go wrong. Ace and Curie were both understandably concerned and exasperated in equal measure when one of his ribs re-broke. 

He barely had to listen while Curie was talking to know he was being given a lecture about taking his health seriously, though he was more preoccupied with Ace using another stimpak on him. He felt a little nauseated and lightheaded, in the way you usually do when you use too many stimpaks within a week or so of each other, but he knew better than to argue at this point. Ace had carefully lifted Danse’s shirt up to inject the medication, and it was the first time he’d seen the bruises since Danse first was hurt. Across his chest and lower back were large splotchy patches of different shades of purple and black, yellowing around the edges. It looked as awful as it felt. Danse accepted the Med-X this time, and by the time he got to bed with Ace, he felt almost no pain and was pleasantly sleepy in a way he wasn’t often.

Ace sighed as he pulled Danse closer to him, relaxing as his nerves lessened, Danse wrapping his arms tightly around him, tucking his head into the crook of Ace’s neck. Danse mumbled an apology against his husband’s neck, he knew how upset it made Ace when he was reckless like this. He heard a sigh and felt a hand come up to play with his hair.

“Don’t apologize, you didn’t get hurt on purpose. You just... Sometimes you act like you don’t care about staying alive anymore, and it makes me worry. I love you and I want you to stay safe and be happy.” Ace’s words stung more than Danse would like to admit. 

He would be lying if he said he had the same level of self-preservation instincts that he did before finding out he was a synth. Many times he didn’t care about staying alive, but he knew admitting that would hurt those he cares about, those who care about him, so he said nothing more than, “I love you too.” He closed his eyes, tired from the medication and trying to ground himself. Ace smelled like the fruit trees he’d cultivated in their backyard, like clean laundry and sugar and home. His hands were strong but gentle, able to handle even the most delicate materials without damaging them. Outside, Danse could hear that the kids who lived in Sanctuary were playing a game, but the fog of sleepiness in his mind had grown too thick for him to comprehend their speech. Beyond that, he could hear the faint rumble in the distance of the generators powering the settlement, the soft buzz of the lights lining the street. The hum of the turrets guarding the settlement. Without realizing it, he drifted off to sleep, the man he loves holding him and keeping him safe—even from himself—for a moment.


End file.
